- Peace, I'm Common, artist, actor, author, and activist.
And this is "Action Planet".
- I'm not a scientist,
but my lay understanding of the science is that
the situation is growing more and more urgent.
- When you take action, your life gets meaning.
When you get a meaning in life, you become happy.
- When people connect, they care.
- When you're feeling well and doing well,
you have no choice but to be well to the planet.
- We are up to the task of managing this crisis.
- And it's a mountain we can climb if we climb it together.
- If we don't do what science demands,
we pass a tipping point and it's out of our control.
(upbeat music)
- The first time I ever felt like I was truly able
to give back to the planet the way I wanted to.
Peace, y'all. What's up? I'm Common.
And this is a new show that I have called "Com + Well".
These are some of the things that I do diet wise jaunt,
you know, that you see that I'm into, as far as it goes
and staying healthy, staying well, and still feeling good.
Getting people on board
with the healthy lifestyle is important.
Because for me, it's a way to show love to people
and our planet.
I mean, you know, living healthier,
like I see people happier.
I see people brighter.
And I believe I've had access to that lifestyle
and to that information,
and it's my duty to spread that information,
and spread it with love so that people can be encouraged
to do it.
It wasn't one particular moment that turned me on
to the lifestyle, but it was like a journey.
And that journey actually started with hip-hop music.
And so many people that I looked up to talked about it
in their own cool way,
about living healthier and eating healthy.
And that was the beginning of my journey.
And I do remember a moment,
I was in LA with two of my comrades,
No I.D and Twilite Tone.
And we were sitting at a diner and they said,
"Man, when you gone stop eating that pork, man?
When you gone stop?"
I remember that moment as a shift, me saying,
"You know what? I'm gonna strive to eat healthier."
I wish I could create a table where everybody can come sit
and eat some of the good vegetarian foods that I've eaten
in my life.
I get my day started with this stuff right here.
A lot of people would be like,
"Man, I got to get my coffee."
For me, I got to get this green juice.
It gives me like energy.
It gives me the nutrients I need.
I would say, and as far as expenses go, I do understand that
in certain areas it can be expensive.
But, you can get simple things.
Drinking more water, like add some greens to your diet,
and cooking for yourself obviously allows you
to cut down some of the costs.
But, I would say it's worth it.
Before I invest in a chain, or a car,
I'ma invest in myself like by spending money
on these healthier foods.
And I feel better.
I feel more vibrant. I got more energy.
So, it's worth the investment. It's worth it.
And you actually are helping yourself
and others by doing so.
It has a double bonus to it.
Well, Ron Finley and what he talked about
as far as gardening and creating access to healthy foods,
was so significant.
I learned so much.
- 'Cause we associate growing food
and being in the soil to slavery.
We don't associate it to being free.
That's why I called this gangster garden.
You know, because this is about freedom.
This is not about being a slave to nobody.
To get to the point where we're dispelling
a lot of these concepts that have been ingrained
in us for life,
and that's what I'm trying to do, man.
This equals freedom to me.
- I look at it as a way for you
to actually do things for yourself.
It's a way that you actually are helping the planet
and to help others around you.
You can feed those around you.
And it's actually a way
to control the things that you do eat
and the things that, you know,
the foods that you take in.
You are producing those things.
And there's something about that that is even more valuable
when you eat it.
When you eat a tomato that you've grown.
When people bring me things from their garden, I'm like,
"Wow, you really care."
You know, like, that's amazing, you know,
like that you grew this.
Oh yeah, healthy diet, healthy planet.
In some cases, I'm not saying all, but some cases,
meats and that process is not good for the plant.
So if you choose, you know, to just eat less meat
or just decide to take meat out of your diet,
it's actually helping the planet.
But, I have another philosophy that's also true.
You know, the more we take care of ourselves,
the clearer we are.
And the clearer we are towards this planet,
the more we value the planet.
The word I would use
to describe the state of our planet would be yearning.
Our planet is yearning for love.
Our planet is yearning for care and for understanding.
Our planet is actually yearning to be heard and understood,
just like so many people are.
Our planet is feeling the same way.
It's feeling neglected.
I mean, the smallest thing that helped me
even know that I was taking steps was that
I got a recyclable trash can.
And really make decisions, like it's times
where it would be easier to go to this other trash can.
And I'm like, no,
let me make sure I put it in the recyclables.
And it's the simple things like,
why can't I keep my lights off?
So, those have been some of the steps that I've been doing
to show that we're committing to making this planet better
and treating our planet in the best way possible
so that it can be a healthy planet.
You know, my relationship with nature,
I always loved nature,
but didn't know how much responsibility I had
towards nature.
My love for nature, now I've grown
to have a reverence and respect,
and know that my part in getting the planet
to a place where it should be and keeping it at that place.
I recognize my responsibility.
I would say, first of all, be optimistic.
The way you think
and the way you approach things really has an effect
upon the results.
So, I would say to any young person, be hopeful,
be educated, be active, spread the word,
and also be in gratitude.
Like, we are on this planet now.
We are breathing. We are living.
Let's start from there.
I'm hopeful
because I believe that young people are really more educated
and more curious, and are seekers,
and are more like committed to bettering the planet
and bettering each other.
Going out into the marches,
I seen young people of all different nationalities.
They were marching for something that they believed in.
They have the access, they have the desire,
and the passion and compassion for one another
and the planet.
The things that we're seeing with the environment,
does it feel natural?
Does it feel like what you've known this planet to be
and what this planet has been?
The signs are obvious and you can see them.
It's just about you choosing to acknowledge them.
And if you like care anything about your loved ones
and the future of your loved ones,
then you're gonna care about the planet.
If I could bring back an extinct animal,
it'd be a Caspian tiger, because I love tigers.
I don't know how,
it hopefully wouldn't be chasing me around.
But, I still think, you know,
that's the animal I would want to bring back.
Art In Motion is a school that I established
with some other comrades of mine
on the South Side of Chicago, where I grew up.
And not only is our school academically based,
but it's also based in arts.
You know, everything from dance to filmmaking,
and script writing, and all of these pathways to professions
in the arts has been something that we're bringing
to our kids, along with meditation,
and education on nutrition, and the planet.
So, Art In Motion is really a holistic school in many ways.
And what I think is one of the things that will change
the trajectory of our youth that grow up in the hoods.
And I'm very, you know, enthused about it.
You know, I strive for a lot of things in life,
but this is one that I can say, man, I got a school back
in my neighborhood.
It's less than 10 blocks from where I grew up.
And it's serving our children of that environment,
so I'm grateful.
So, check it out. One, two, it's common sense.
I won't take it for granted.
I came to rock it live for my people on "Action Planet".
You know how it is.
Yo, you felt me when I said, people, we got to eat healthy.
What healthy does is it's like a buzz,
the things that we saw and the things that was.
Yo, it's like this.
It all goes to type flows.
When it comes to this, I started talking
about recycle and reuse.
Yo, the planet we can't abuse.
That's why I be giving my stepfather old shoes
so he could use them again.
I'm the C to the O, double M, O-N.
You can feel it in the wind.
The planet needs help and the world keeps turning.
The word that I use earlier, I said, it's yearning.
As the planet is burning, can we bring some love to it?
And this is what I do.
I guess I will bring above to it.
The most high, I keep a close eye on our planet earth.
And I think about it having a new birth.
It's like that, y'all. Yeah.
(light music)